I have a 46g tank with 1 pleco about 10 inches long, a parrot fish about 8 inches long, an african cichlid about 6 inches, a 4 inch peacock cichlid, and 2 baby oscars. Now to the emergency. I thought i had ich in my tank so i bought ich attack ( it's organic). I was treating the tank and was told after i was alrready a week into it that i should raise my temp to about 82. I raised it to about 80 and added salt. After i did that my parrot went to the bottom and isn't really eating. And also since then my pleco has developed an open sore. Now today it looks like my oscars have this fungus looking stuff on them. Also right after i added the salt it looked like a cory cat that i had developed fin rot. So i put him in my hospital tank and he died that night. My readings are from strips about 90 nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia very hard water 0 chlorine, 60 alk, and 7.2 ph. i tried one dose of amquel 2 to no real avail. so the next day i tried a dose of tetra nitraban that got my nitrate down to 90 from 160. i did about a 50% water change. Fish don't seem any better. Actually worse!!!! I put the charcoal filter back in tonight and posted on here. So i could start over and I lowered the temp to 76. So it all up to you guys to save my fish please help.
Fishy Emergency
- Thread starter IceDragon
- Start date
it's no wonder that they're doing poorly. your nitrate should always reamain below 20 ppm. 160 is plain filth they're swimming in so no wonder they got sick.
Dont waste time or money with amquel or nitraban or anything. good old water changes with treated tap water will work at keeping your nitrates low.
Your tank is heavily overstocked even right now (before the oscars grow) which is why you have nitrates this high in the first place x_x
My suggestion to you is to do daily 50% water changes until you get below 20 ppm nitrates.
I'm also curious, what id the tank water smell like when you had 160 ppm nitrate...?
Dont waste time or money with amquel or nitraban or anything. good old water changes with treated tap water will work at keeping your nitrates low.
Your tank is heavily overstocked even right now (before the oscars grow) which is why you have nitrates this high in the first place x_x
My suggestion to you is to do daily 50% water changes until you get below 20 ppm nitrates.
I'm also curious, what id the tank water smell like when you had 160 ppm nitrate...?
yeah I expected the water to smell awful as a result of high nitrates...
Your best choice here is to get a much bigger 100+ gallon tank for all of these.
You will NOT be able to keep them safely in a 46 as you can see from your experience all ready.
don't use additives. water changes, water changes, water changes. daily water changes make sure you don't do them too frequently and shock your fish.
Don't make the same mistake as the previous owner. get a much bigger tank, cycle it properly and then move them in there. Of course loads of $$ would help
Your best choice here is to get a much bigger 100+ gallon tank for all of these.
You will NOT be able to keep them safely in a 46 as you can see from your experience all ready.
don't use additives. water changes, water changes, water changes. daily water changes make sure you don't do them too frequently and shock your fish.
Don't make the same mistake as the previous owner. get a much bigger tank, cycle it properly and then move them in there. Of course loads of $$ would help
since your tank's fish are tropical your temp should never be that low. I say 77F is a good temp for your fish to always be at. the low temp could also have contributed to the disease =/
Yea use amquel as you water conditioner if that's all you got.
40 ppm AMMONIA!!?? there is no test kit that can measure this high....plus at 400 ammonia you fish would completely melt lol with nothing left (jk but they would be dead instantly) I think you meant 40 ppm nitrate?
The only connection I can make from what you said before is that ammonia is more toxic in high pH water ...I forget if temp has to do with it...
Yea use amquel as you water conditioner if that's all you got.
40 ppm AMMONIA!!?? there is no test kit that can measure this high....plus at 400 ammonia you fish would completely melt lol with nothing left (jk but they would be dead instantly) I think you meant 40 ppm nitrate?
The only connection I can make from what you said before is that ammonia is more toxic in high pH water ...I forget if temp has to do with it...
Ok i did the water change last night and took out all the decorations in the tank so i could gavel vac unobstructed. Good news is my mitrates have gone down to about 70. I will continue the water changes. But now my oscars have this like film growing over their eyes. and the parrot is still laying on the bottom and oscars are right their with hernow . Which is wierd they never really liked each other. They usually went to the other sides of tank. It might be cause they cant see and she is the biggest in the tank?.
Im just looking to get them as healthy as possible before investing money in a new tank (100-150g). I wasn't ready for these guys and now im worried bout them. My first tank is doin great with my signature fish in it. I've had no real problems with it. It is the lack of care for these guys from previous owner that has put them in peril.
well keeping you all updated i lost both oscars and i had the light turned off cause it kindda sounded like velvet and that was one of the treatments to turn the light off. I turned the light on to check on them and saw the pleco sucking on the cichlid. So i did some research and found that the pleco was the problem. He was sucking on the other fish taking their slime coat off. So it's my assumption is thats how the other bacteria set in. Now all i have left is the blood parrot peacock cichlid and the pleco. The pleco has an open wound on him so im also assuming the pleco tried to suck on the parrot fish and she turned around and bit him. My plan now is take the parrot and the pleco to a pet store and try and keep just the peacock. Im going to let the tank go for a month the try restocking. I have gotten the nitrates down to about 30. So i think the tank is now safe but fish are uncompatible,especially for my size tank.
30 ppm is still a bit high so keep doing changes like you were. It is unfortunate that you lost the oscars, but it was bound to happen. I wouldn't blame the pleco entirely as any pleco would likely such on a dead fish for a food source, so don't assume that the pleco actually caused the demise...it is possible in a crowded tank like that though...
the smaller fish might be an issue with the peacock eel. make sure you don't get anything smaller than a swordtail/molly.
the smaller fish might be an issue with the peacock eel. make sure you don't get anything smaller than a swordtail/molly.